The Bottineau pioneer. (Bottineau, N.D.) 1885-1895, 1887-11-10
R1tlIs 0nSks soISon.
!rcrn ths RhIadslphia H,r


"a August ~, 1855, a6ysS
son ot George Putnam, Who
Stony Ford, Pennsylvania, No. 4
turning home from driving The co
to pasture. and stopped BY the road-
side to pick some berries. He MA
arefootad and suddenly felt 4 sharp
sting on the instep Of his left foot:
He ran crying home, and told biz
mother that he had scratched his loot
an q briar. The foot had begun to
swell, and his mother picked from the
flesh what she at first supposed to
be q briar, but as the foot continued
to swell and the boys sufferings were
intense the alarming fact vas appar.}
emit that he had been bitten BY some
poisonous snake, and that the sup.
posed briar was N Of it's fangs that
had buried itself in the woundandhad
been pulled from the snakes jaw
Mrs. Putnam called her husband,
who was at work near the house, and
alarmed other members ofsthe family
Alive chicken was cut iii two and the
warm flesh applied to the wound.
Whisky was given to the boy in large
quantities, and a messenger was dis
patched for a doctor. a member of
the family went to the spot where the
boy said he had first felt the SHARP
sting, and found a rattlesnake coiled
near the roadside. The snake was
killed and one of it's fangs was found
to be missing, which left no doubt ofths
nature OF the boys injury. Thesnake
was cut open and held on the wound
in the boys foot, whichhad swollen to
double its natural size. The sufferinQs
OF the boy were so great that he could
scarcely be held down in the bed by
two men. The doctor arrived and
cauterized the wound, but saidit was
too late and that the boy would die.
The swelling had extended up the leg
to his waist, and the leg became spot
ted. Antidotes prescribed by the doc
tor were administered, but the whisky
treatment was also adhered to. The
boys body turned black. but alter
three days OF the most terrible agony,
the swelling began to go down, and in
q week the victim was able to get
about. In a months time all the eff
fects OF the poison seemedt to have dis
appeared, and the boy was as well as
ever. re
On the goth OF August, 1884, he was
seized with a sharp pain in his foot,
which began to swell, and in q short
time his leg and foot were swollen to-
double their size, and became spotted,
as they had on the day the boy was
bitten by the snake. He experienced
the same symptoms, and suffered for
three days almost as much agony as
he had the year before. When the
swelling again wentdown the pain sub,
sided and the symptoms disappeared.
Regularly on the Goth of August every
year since the same symptoms have
appeared, on the authority ofa well-
known citizen of Tloga-County, and
their recurrence this year was marked
by o than usual pain and swelling,
the spots on the leg and bodystrikingly
resembling that ofarattlesnake. The
slfferings of the boy were so intense
that he was not expected to pass
through them with his life, but at last
accounts he was slowly recovering. I
1t is said that there are three SINH
lar cases on record-one of q girl who
was bitten by a rattlesnake ID Law.
ingston Comfy, New York, thirty
years ago, and who for twenty-five
years, on the anniversary Of the day
on which she was bitten, was subject
to the same symptoms as attended
the original poisoning. She died on
the twenty fifth recurrence Of the ter
rible symDtOms. @